Suggestions for power, fluids, engines, and the like all have been suggested - and this serves to provide a logical path to them. I'm talking about fabrication units, mills, and hoists for building these higher-tier parts. At a low level, these will serve to provide combustion technology - but advances in research and machines could eventually yield ship-producing factories! The cost, of course, would not be cheap - nor the construction easy. However, having potential for a fully autonomous crafting system would inspire an economy of traded goods and services. Plus, it would allow a player not comfortable with crafting to have a quicker, easier supply of materials and tools. If you'd like elaboration of the systems I have in mind, concept art, or anything - let me know! Tier OneIn History For starters, let's talk about industrial age engineering. Most factories ran their machines off of a central, overhead drive shaft. Coal and fossil fuels formed the basis for power generation as well. Ignoring the horrid work conditions... In Game A generator or an engine block will be necessary, but can power 8-16 milling/machining/loom pieces. Fossil fuels may be non-existent or hard to come by on planets - so lets assume that charcoal or flammable gas will do. For simplicity's sake, something (it's an adventure sandbox game, not a sim) needs to burn. Tier TwoIn HistoryMore modern-age, this could support most weapons manufacture, along with better engines, aircraft, what-have-you. Robot arms and hydraulic pumps take care of the heavy lifting. Say goodbye to the limitations and consequences of a fossil-fuel motor, and say hello to solar, wind, geothermal, and nuclear power! In Game Now the milling machines need a decent boost to quality of production, perhaps speed of production, and definitely have more options available. The cost of items will go up, either on a linear or quadratic scale. However, these new machines will need power generation - so it'd be wise to set that up ASAP! Tier Three Future? Who can but guess at what the future of manufacture looks like, but one could guess that nanobots, super-tensile substances, and replication technology have lead roles. The most environmentally friendly, effective, and costly of tiers, this level gives one access to the creation of many, many things. Why, even starships (if approved) could be fabricated. In Game Not a task for those without a lot - a lot! - of materials and time, this tier condenses the space needed for machines. Quality is almost flawless, and the player could then provide for every industrial need he/she has. Final Words If anything still seems unclear, I'll be fleshing this out as I am able. My pixel art is a bit rusty - but I could whip up something.
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I like this you could put in the raw materials and get out interesting building blocks that emit light or act like dirt for farming or something like that maybe, also make furniture or even just money from trade goods
I'll be willing to answer any questions, as well as adapt this idea to best fit within the upcoming game. Just give me a holler if you see anything - or, perhaps, see something's missing.
As am I. I feel that in order to balance these correctly, I'd have to have some sort of delay before a product is ready, multiple steps, and/or machine deterioration. As for tier 3, I'm thinking that you'll pay through the nose in energy and materials. I'm sure that playing and gathering materials will give me a better idea of product cost. I intended these for base maintenance and to provide a service of goods to an in-game economy. It will be a hard investment.
They would require a lot to set up, which is good. Every kind of factory should require a decent amount of materials, considering you not only have to build the machines for processing and generating energy but also supply materials to manufacture the items. I think the only bonuses would be mass producing items (for the people who have started companies in that section of the forums) and the speed at which you could mass produce these items if you're able to have miners constantly gathering supplies which are then transferred to the factory.
Balance is an issue indeed. What resource would players want so much of, that you'd need a factory to meet demands? Building materials, most likely. I hope this game isn't like Terraria, in that you can scoop dirt from the ground and build a house with it. Or build a log cabin from raw lumber. LOG CABIN in a SCIFI game? Please. We need industry. I'd like two levels of production: one suited for subsistence, then one suited for trading.
They'd be crazy to remove that from the game, that level of freedom is what makes it so great. If you want to live in a dirt hut like a crazy person, you're free too. I'm thinking more along the lines of crafting actual items and weapons rather than having a Brick Block factory or something.
Items and gear yes - but I'd be bummed if my suggestion became only that. I err... I wanted a brick block factory too...
I don't think dirt huts would be practical anyways, since you have a cushy spaceship to fall back to whenever you want. I guess I'm the kind of guy who would laugh if pickaxes were a perfectly feasible tool in this kind of game. Terraria was a clothes-on-your back survival game, so it made sense there. Not so much here, in my opinion.
I think there'd be more use in a brick block factory than a gun factory. Because it seems that guns are easier to come by, since you need only one. I want a brick house (bow chicka bow wow, she's a brick. House!).
Factories should be able to craft whatever you want, and would probably have a block/machine for you to program a recipe into and have the factory carry out that particular recipe. It's just that I was thinking of corporations using this for machines and weapons to distribute. Pickaxes are a perfectly feasible tool, just because there are higher levels of technology doesn't mean that everyone on every planet have caught up to that level. That isn't even true on earth, so how could be true across the universe? Also, you can edit your previous post so there's no need to double post.
I understand that point. But the player him/herself is an interstellar adventurer. If I were an interstellar adventurer, I'd want a laser drill vortex, or something, in order to be taken seriously. Pickaxes would take all day for a lone miner, and a lot of stamina (if this were reality). Natives would likely use them, but not I, the spaceman. But they're always an option, if I ever need it. Alright, I do think they have a place, it just seems weird to me, from an aesthetic standpoint. Also, I didn't edit because I'm unsure if it'd alert the OP if I did update it in order to respond.
To find a good compromise... It would make sense to build up from primitive level - but I doubt you'd be swinging a pick through tier 2. Also, I'd wager that a new player may start out with a handy Sci-Fi tool, or would be able to use the ship's systems to help a bit.
Isn't there a 3d printer ingame that does all of that, that comes with the ship? Although I imagine larger pieces of equipment and large-scale manufacturing could require something like this.
That's what I'm thinking. The printer is for small scale things, factories for large scale construction things.
Update: The art is going to take a while - turns out I'm a lot more rusty with pixel art than I had thought - but I hope to finish a few example tier 1 machines by tomorrow night. I'll split the machines into a few categories Mills and Lathes for parts, molds and presses for blocks, welding supports and fabrication stands for finished products. Note this set is not meant for food factorization - I'll save that for another day. Also - tier one is not going to be "autonomous". In fact, I hope for it to be a small step up from a "crafting bench": allowing you to make a few more items. It doesn't get "hands-off" until tier two. A simple example would be the manufacture of a wooden door. One would bring the rough logs to the milling table (doubling as a saw for simplicity) in order to gradually produce boards. This would then be brought to the fabrication stand to be assembled. A more complicated piece, like a weapon, would have all of it's parts processed in a much longer and more expensive system.
Or go MC Buildcraft and make it have to be powered then have pipes to transfer items to storage containers
I would like the electricity and machines to be similar to all of the popular industrial mods from minecraft like IC2, Buildcraft, and Redpower. Tubes/Pipes for item transfer seem pretty necessary unless you have an NPC to carry your raw materials all the way to the factory.
